Now found here:

http://andshewascc.blogspot.com/

It's a few days before the Hokies vs. Boise St. game, and where are my tickets? Not in my hot little hand, I'll tell you that much.

Oh, and I'll tell you so much more.

So I try to find a 'contact us' on the TM website, and there just simply isn't one. Instead, you have to go to "help", read through the questions they think you might need help on, until you find "My tickets were not mailed." Within that paragraph it gives you the number you need to dial.

So I dial the number and like everything else these days, some automated lady picks up and talks to me as if she's human. Creepy. She asks me for my order number, which is in the following format: NN-NNNNNN/XXX. You actually have to say numbers (hyphen) numbers (slash) letters, so I do, and Miss Automatic states "I 'think' I heard you say NN-NNNNNN/X WRONG WRONG, is this correct?" Of course not. So I repeat it, and she gets it wrong again. So I try to say it without the hyphen and slash, since she actually tells me I can do it that way. Then she says, "I'm sorry, but you are missing information in your order number. Please try again" So I end up just saying "Representative." Wow, Miss Automatic sounded really annoyed with me when she said "One Moment Please." It's as if they made a robot with its nose actually in the air, just to get that effect.

I wait on hold for over ten minutes, and it was one of those holds that gets interrupted every 30 seconds with the message about unusually high call volume. I don't mind hearing that message every few minutes, but really? Every 30 seconds? (Yeah, I did time it.)

When someone finally rescued me from that message, I gave him my order number and he said "I'm sorry, that is the ONE market we don't service at this number. Please call 800-527-6384."

How likely is it that I get the ONE market that TM General doesn't service?

Well, I called and got to speak to a pleasant lady that claimed my tickets were mailed out on June 9, in a plain white envelope that looks like junk mail. Clever -- but lucky for her we actually do open junk mail, just to be safe. So now my tickets are waiting at will call for me, no thanks to the Ticket Master. Master of not sending tickets, for one thing. The End.

Just randomly talking about actors with my sisters, I realized there are several actors that I really, really like for one reason or another, that I would never think (remember?) to mention if asked point blank, "who is your favorite actor?"

--Antonio Banderas
--Josh Hartnett
--Ryan Renolds
--Paul Rudd
--Justin Long

Antonio because of that suave, latino persona he carries, as well as his voice.

Josh Hartnett not so much because of his acting skills, but more because he reminds me (looks wise) of my friend Kevin. BUT, his acting in Lucky Number Slevin (EXCELLENT movie if you haven't seen it!) was spot-on.

Ryan Renolds because he plays the perfect egotistical, self-confident role really well.

Paul Rudd because I think he should win "Best All Around" actor. I believe his serious roles, his comedic roles, his aloof roles, etc. I think he is able to just truly capture whatever essence of the character he's given.

Justin Long because of that thing I have for the shorter, somewhat goofy, somewhat nerdy but somehow not totally geeky guy. Best role he's had was in Live Free or Die Hard -- his stage presence with Bruce Willis is GOLDEN.

Not that I update too terribly often on LJ anymore (not much time!) but I'm going to try to throw in the random thoughts I have :-)

I think I listened to "April Come She Will" by Simon and Garfunkle about 12 times on the way in to work today. Love that song.

Cassy is 5 months old now. She just started on rice cereal, and seems to like it alright. We knew it was time to start her on that when she went from sleeping straight through the night (10 - 12 hours at a time) to waking up every 3 - 4 hours, despite taking a full bottle right before bed. Like a charm, she had her first day of cereal, and slept right through the night again.

The funny thing is, I really didn't mind getting up with Cassy over the past couple of weeks. It's like, when she was new and getting up all the time, I just craved sleep. I wasn't used to being a mom and couldn't quite catch on to getting 3 hours of sleep at a time. So of course, all I wanted was to sleep, and whenever Cassy would wake up I would just go through the motions of change the baby, feed the baby, burp the baby, get her to sleep again, all as fast as possible. This time around, though, now that I am in love with my baby girl, I almost craved waking up to feed her. I loved it, I loved spending those few waking moments with her, just the two of us, in the wee hours of the morning. It was so splendidly sweet. Adjustment is a strange thing.

We bought Cass a 'Johnny Jump Up' -- my favorite thing when I was a kid. She L-O-V-E-S it. Loves it. Bliss on a baby's face is an amazing thing to witness. I didn't realize someone so little could be so happy. She squeals and giggles and coos and smiles while bouncing, and she's getting really good at walking forward a bit while in it. I've taken maybe too many videos, but that's ok.

That's one of the things we did on Mother's Day. After dinner, we watched all of the videos we had taken of Cassy up to that point. MAN, I hadn't even seen some of them because they were ones Eric had taken after her delivery. Yes, I got a little teary eyed, but no, I did not cry.

Father's Day was spent playing tennis and frisbee, and at a cookout at my parent's house. Cassy made Eric a baseball cap with little finger print caterpillars on the brim. Super cute! For Mother's Day she had made me a card that had little construction paper cut-outs of her hands and feet. I really love the daycare she's in -- they go the distance to make the kids feel like family!

On that note, I am going to go get my little girl so we can hang out the rest of the night.

Great Falls Hiking: http://carlynusbaum.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?&set_albumName=album189&&yPosition=718

Perils of the Lost Jungle Mini Golf: http://carlynusbaum.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album190

Eric's 29th: http://carlynusbaum.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album191

Mother's Day 2010: http://carlynusbaum.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?&set_albumName=album192&&yPosition=350

VT Weekend 2010: http://carlynusbaum.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?&set_albumName=album193&&yPosition=518

Arboretum: http://carlynusbaum.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?&set_albumName=album194&&yPosition=388

Cassidy Pictures: http://carlynusbaum.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album184

I think she is here somewhere, but she keeps disappearing.

We successfully made it down to the cabin, then down to Blacksburg, then back to the cabin and then back home again this weekend. That was only about 10 hours of driving over three days, so it was awful. Of course, Eric was driving, so maybe it was?

This was Cassy's first 'long' car ride, and I think she was a champion with it. She slept almost the whole time!

My cousin Carrie graduated, so it is nice to welcome another VT alum into the family!

Eric's birthday is TODAY!! We began celebrating . . . well, back in March, really, when I gave him a DVR and expanded HD channels (including the HD Tennis Channel!) At that point we did have birthday cheesecake, we did sing happy birthday, etc. SO yeah, that kicked it off.

Then for his 'real' birthday, I got him a set of Lefty golf clubs, only of course they came in Righty. I've got to do a return/exchange there. We had dinner at Outback with the Nusbaum side last night. It was a nice way to end the weekend.

A pretty dumb way to start the week is feeling sick like I do, again! I hope it goes away soon.

Cassy will be 4 months on Wednesday.

This Saturday will be spent in the Chester with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece! Oh, and one of Eric's beer buddies. I think the boys are all going to be tasting some beers, while the girls go shopping. Typical?

The new appliances arrived! The oven, fridge, and microwave were all in and installed without any problem. The dishwasher, on the other hand, proved to be a pain. Our old dishwasher was installed, then the floor tiles were laid, then the countertops laid over it -- so it was impossible to simply life out! Because they are only allowed to deliver and install appliances due to liability reasons, the delivery men couldn't assist Eric with breaking the floor tiles. We just happened to have a business card from a general Handyman we used a few years ago when we first moved into our house, so Eric called the guy up, explained the (time sensitive) situation, and within 30 minutes we had him on site, breaking up floor tiles in order to get that old dishwasher out of there. He didn't even charge us a crazy rate! So we were definitely blessed with that outcome. Then, upon installation of the new dishwasher, we realized our old pipes were not compatible with the new dishwasher. We were literally about to call it quits and get a plumber over to our house when one of the delivery guys came up with a brilliant idea to use some sort of connector to create the 'bend' the pipes required. Sure enough, it worked! And after 3.5 hours, we had all of our appliances installed and ready to use. Whew!

I decided to take a cue from a friend and consider June "Me" month. As in, I'm not travelling anywhere or anything. I'm just going to spend the weekends doing what I want to do, not only things that I 'need' to do. Cassy's getting big enough now that she can enjoy going outside more, and I want to make sure she gets her fair share of outdoor time. Actually, she's going on her first hike on Memorial Day Saturday! It won't be a strenuous hike or anything like that, but it will be nice to be out and about with her NOT in a carseat.

Done writing for now.

I'm going to start responding to LJ's questions that they ask. I always have answers for them, but never write them out. I think it would be funny to go back and read them sometime!

DO YOU EVER GIVE YOUR VEHICLES NAMES? IF SO, WHAT ARE THEY?
I name random other things, but not my vehicles. For instance, my GPS is named Lillian. When she's being bossy or rude, it's Lillian. When she's being pleasant, and providing me the directions I need, I call her Lilly.

My sister, on the other hand, names her vehicles and somehow even manages to give them all-out personalities. She currently has Vicky and Cybil. She named my dad's truck Jerry. We all refer to these vehicles by those names.

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Happy (belated) Mom's Day to all you moms out there. This counts if you're expecting your first baby, as well. I figure, if you've had to alter your life (ie, stop drinking, change your eating habits, etc) then you're already practicing being a mom. So, good work, and happy mom's day!

My husband and daughter gave me the best day yesterday. It didn't start out as planned--I had desperately wanted to make it to Church, but the morning just moved so slowly and seemed to zip by at the same time that by the time we were out the door, it was already after 10:30 (our service starts at 10!) So I was bummed about that, but my family quickly got me going. After a nice Mom's day meal with Eric's parents, we made it back to our house to catch a nap before going over to my mom's. Waiting on my pillow top was a beautiful card and a small little box! The card was one Cassy "made" for me -- with her little construction paper cut out hands forming flowers and feet forming petals, with a note inside saying how much she loves me :-) The little box held a gorgeous garnet-and-diamond ring, that completes what I've taken to calling my "Cassy Collection" of jewelry. Garnet is Cassy's birthstone, and Diamond is mine. So, for my mother's gift when Cassy was born, Eric got me a garnet and diamond necklace. For my birthday, Cassy got me matching earrings, and now for mother's day, I got the ring. I was so surprised! I had said the only thing I wanted was to go out to dinner, just my family, and that was it. I guess Cassy (Eric!) had other things in mind :-)

After our nap, we went over to my mom's house and hung out for a bit, took some pictures, and then we went to dinner. We went to a new restaurant that opened up near our house (next to the Outback) called Bistro Bistro. It is a richly ornate, fine dining restaurant that has amazing servers and delicious food. Maybe the best calamari I've ever had! I paired a Veramonte Cab-Sav with Beef Tenderloin, Eric paired a light Pinot Noir with Shrimp Fettucine Alfredo. The restaurant offered complimentary bread on top of everything else. Seriously, I can see this restaurant becoming a special occasion staple!

We ended the day by going to Wal-Mart because Cassy is now out of size 1 and into size 2 diapers. But of course while we were there, I had to check out the garden section. I think planting is growing on me, even though I feel like my failure to success rate is about 2:1 right now. I did manage to grow some irises up through bloom, but then when it did actually blossom the flower was too heavy for the stalk and ended up bending over. My assesment is that the flower is too far from the sun's rays (it gets maybe 6 hours of morning sun), so it got taller than usual, and the stalk just couldn't support the blossom when it actually made its appearance. So I'll see what to do about that, I'm guessing I'll transfer them to the mailbox area, and just put peonies in its place since all they need is morning sun.

We did a LOT of yardwork on Saturday despite our lawn mower being dead to the world (our lawn desperately needs to be cut. The grass sprouted feathers.) Eric built out brick lining around my front-left garden and our tree in the front yard. We mulched and laid top soil, I planted Cassy's dedication roses from my parents. After two trips to Lowes and a couple hundred bucks later, I'd say our yard is starting to look pretty darn good!

Friday we spent all day at KINGS DOMINION! I hadn't been there since High School, so I hadn't yet ridden things like the Volcanoe. I also had last visted when it was still owned by Paramount, not Cedar Fair, so little changes like Stan Mikita's now being some weird 50's diner kind of threw me off. BUT -- we chose a *perfect* day to go. Since it was a Friday, before school ends for the summer, there were virtually no lines. We had the longest waits only when we decided to ride in the front car, or on rides that don't get as much traffic because the park was only running one of cars. Also, you couldn't have asked for better weather - warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt without getting too hot, somewhat breezy. I didn't even get sunburned (a first for me!). We arrived at the park just after it opened, and stayed until it closed (10:30a - 8p). We had a picnic lunch out in shade under the trees in the parking lot, and had a quick dinner inside the park. We were on rides 21 times, which I think Eric said averages out to just over 2 rides per hour? Something like that. I just know that I felt like I was forever getting on rollercoasters. We rode the Dominator (my favorite), the Intimidator (general favorite), the Volcano, the Avalance, The Beserker (more on this later), Ricochet (also more on this, later), the Anaconda, the Ferris Wheel, the Rebel Yell, the Grizzly, the Hurler, the Drop Tower (whatever the actual name is, I don't recall), some Italian Job stunt lot thing, and Flight of Fear. Michelle rode The Crypt -- And I think she's both crazy and brave for doing so. Most of these rides we rode multiple times, and on the Grizzly we didn't even get off of the coaster for the second go-around. As I mentioned, *no lines*!

MORE ON THESE LATER -
The Beserker. I hate it. I hate it I hate i I hate it. Basically, what I learned, is that I don't mind roller coasters with loops and corkscrews at all because you're upside down for barely even a split of a second. But the Beserker, one of those ships that ends up doing loops -- I can't handle it. I can't handle being suspended upside down like that for long seconds at a time. I had no idea that's how it would be for me. And now I know.

Plus, when the ride stopped and all I wanted to do was get the hell off that thing, walk away, and never look back . . . the restraints failed to come unlocked, so we were forced to just sit on that ride for an extra five minutes or so until maintenance could come reset the ship. BAAAHHHH. But at least I know the restraints did, indeed, work. Maybe a little too well :-)

Ricochet. Ok, I think this is supposed to be a kid's ride. But man, I have never felt more like I was being whipped out of a roller coaster! I'm guessing it's because it didn't have over-the-shoulder harnasses. It was so smooth, and picked up speed around each turn to use its momentum to thrust you forward to the next turn -- and man, I was holding on for dear life. Not my favorite ride, I won't do that one again, but again -- now I know.

So, yeah, we had a great day overall. We got the front seat on the supreme coasters a few times, had LOTS of laughs and came up with a brilliant new invention: The Squaretangle.

Kings Dominion: Ride On Ride on.

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My cousin's graduation is THIS WEEK! I can't believe on Saturday I'll be back on Tech's campus! :-)

Eric's birthday is next MONDAY! I think he already knows what I'm getting him. ho hum.

Cassy turns 4 MONTHS next Wednesday. I'm celebrating by taking her to get shots. Poor kid!

And we've hit Mid May. Mayday, mayday -- time is going too fast!

Ellen Degeneres is a Covergirl spokesmodel?

Also, I don't like the word "shopportunity."

Kings Dominion on Friday. It will be epic.

Going to sleep now. Catchya on the flip side.

It's been just over three months now since Cassy joined the family. It's hard to believe she's already a quarter of a year old! She's growing, she's learning, she's smiling/almost laughing. She's got the sweetest disposition, is so easy-going. If you had told me months ago that life would return to 'normal,' just add a baby into the mix, I never would have believed you. But here we are, three months later, and life is mostly back to normal!

We're still keeping fantastically busy. Of course work will always keep things hectic, but aside from that we've had movie nights and we've met people for dinner, we got our driveway ripped out and replaced, we're working on additional landscaping. We're ordering all-new kitchen appliances in a week or so (yay!), we managed to get our taxes done. Cassy and I made it down to EMU for one of my brother's baseball games, and we got up super early the next day to celebrate easter at Sunrise Service at Stonewall Memory Gardens. Then, she got to meet her great-grandma Nusbaum for the first time! She also got to meet her new cousin Lucas, who is just a couple weeks younger than Cassy. Lucas is her 2nd Cousin, actually, but how nice that they are so close in age!

All of this was a nice way to ease into Q2:

--My birthday
--Women's retreat
--(Easter)
--Cassy's Dedication/cookout
--SG Yardsale
--Tom's birthday
--Kings Dominion (/Cassy's first overnight trip away from her parents!)
--Carrie's VT Graduation (/Cassy's first trip to the cabin!)
--Eric's Birthday
--Cassy's 4-mo check up (!!!)
--Mom and Dad's anniversary
--Mom's birthday

So far June seems to be pretty light as far as planned activities go. I'm hoping we'll be able to use that month to catch up around the house, maybe get the office and guest bedroom back in order. I still need to get my diploma framed, maybe I can carve out time to get that done as well. As it is, it's still just sitting in the mailing tube I received it in. I did take it out long enough to make sure the information was correct :-)

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We had Cassy's Dedication yesterday. She was SUCH a good baby. For the most part she was just nice and peaceful - through Eric's and my affirmation that we will raise her in the name of Jesus and through the congregational charge to support us in that mission, through Dan annointing Cassy. She got a bit fussy during the prayers because she got really tired (and she will fuss for about 5 minutes before falling asleep). When we got back to our seats, Grandma Bon Bon took Cassy and in a few minutes the kid was passed out for the rest of the service.

Afterwards we had a cookout to celebrate the dedication. The weather managed to hold off so we were able to eat/hang out outside. Dad made his famous pulled pork BBQ, mom made her potato salad, the Nusbaums brought baked beans and pasta salad. We had veggie trays, cheese/cracker trays, and a bunch of chips, bread, dips, etc. I think it was a pretty tasty spread. We karaoked (so did Cassy!), played foosball, watched movies, played balderdash. I made soft and hard shell tacos for dinner for those that were able to stay later. The whole time Cassy was awake and having fun, until right around dinner time she again got really sleepy and therefor cranky. When she finally did fall asleep (around 8:30p) she slept all night until 7am this morning!

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Random: I love starburst jellybeans (original). I hate green starburst jellybeans.

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Pet Peeve: single-ply toilet paper. I tried to mop up some water that got on the sink when i was cleaning, and the crappy toilet paper just . . . disintegrated. what's that about.

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Looking forward to: Cooking up some pot roast tonight

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